New HAI-related standard aims to improve infection prevention in UK hospitals

Published: 13-Apr-2016

NICE publishes the standard to help hospitals focus on best practice

Hospital failings were in the news headlines once again last month. With norovirus causing many ward closures across the UK and MRSA cases rising in some hospitals, infection prevention practitioners face many challenges in reducing HAIs.


Get more updates on Infection Prevention and Containment at the 2016 Infection Prevention and Containment ConferenceFind out more

A recent inspection by the NHS Trust Development Authority (TDA) at one major UK hospital found the infection prevention and control nursing team were not clear about best practice, and the trust had not acted on previous advice received about MRSA cases.

As infection prevention and control is a key priority for the NHS, in February, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) introduced a new Healthcare-associated infections Quality standard (QS113)1.

This quality standard covers organisational factors in preventing and controlling healthcare-associated infections in secondary care settings.

Organisational factors include management arrangements, policies, procedures, monitoring, evaluation, audit and accountability.

Dr Bharat Patel, Consultant Microbiologist & AMR & HCAI Lead for Public Health Laboratory, will be presenting on the New National Quality Standard for Healthcare Associated Infection (QS113) at the one-day IPCC conference being held in Nottingham on 12 May.

For full details on the hospital hygiene and contamination control topics to be covered at the event visit hpcimedia.com/IPCC

1. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs113

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